Brad Schrader: "Late Nights" (2025) CD Review

Brad Schrader is a singer based in New York who focuses on the great standards, songs that are widely beloved, songs that continue to move us and speak to us. His new album, Late Nights, creates the wonderful and timeless atmosphere of a cocktail club. Of course, while listening, you might have to mix your own drinks. And then let the music transport you to what might feel like another place and time, but which is really a different, and better, way of looking at our own place and time. Make the most of what we have by listening to great music. Backing the vocalist on this release are Jerry Vezza on piano, Alex Claffy on bass, Andrew Van Tassel on saxophone, and Khary Abdul-Shahid on drums.

Brad Schrader opens the album with "Time After Time," which begins with some gentle and pretty work on piano to ease us into the realm of this music. Soon the other musicians come in, and the song takes on a nice rhythm. "Time after time/I tell myself that I'm so lucky to be loving you/So lucky to be the one you run to see." Oh yes! How lucky I feel to be telling myself the same thing. And when he sings "The passing years will show," we can hear those years in his voice. It's a wonderful moment where we get this sudden glimpse of an entire relationship. And during those excellent leads on piano and saxophone, we can see a couple dancing through the years, and even outside the years. We feel the joy and magic of such a relationship. May everyone get the chance to know and experience just what this song describes. Toward the end of the track we're treated to a delightful bass solo. "Time After Time" was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. It's followed by "I Wish I Knew," written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. "Do I mistake this for a real romance/I wish I knew, but only you can answer/Am I a fool to hope and wish and pray so/Don't lead me on, if you don't care just say so." This track features some really nice work on piano, and then we get a bass solo fairly early on. It is after the bass solo that the saxophone comes in. This is an interesting song, for it has a romantic vibe, but it's a hopefully romantic thing, for he's not sure whether he's in a romance or not. "What shall I do? I wish I knew." And the saxophone adds its own voice to that wish near the end.

Then Brad delivers an excellent and surprising rendition of "It's All Right With Me," a Cole Porter song, the first of two Cole Porter songs included on this disc. This version begins on drums, setting things moving at a good clip, and Brad's voice comes in, supported by just drums for the first few lines. This rendition cooks, and has some delicious changes in the rhythm too. And I love how Brad's voice takes on a certain attitude on the lines "It's the wrong dame with the wrong chips/Though your lips are lovely, they're the wrong lips." The bass and drums keep things moving, and even during the piano lead it is that rhythm that I'm focused on, particularly the bass. And then, holy moly, check out that drum work in the section that is just bass and drums. Fantastic. "It's all right with me, yeah," indeed! That's followed by "It Never Entered My Mind," a Rodgers and Hart number from Higher And Higher. There is a kind of quiet intensity to the music. "Once I laughed when I heard you saying/That I'd be playing solitaire/Uneasy in my easy chair/It never entered my mind." I love the way he delivers the line "You have what I lack myself." There is love heard in his delivery of the word "have," which is wonderful. In the track's second half, there is a gentle piano solo.

Brad Schrader turns to bossa nova with a cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)." "This is where I want to be/Here with you, and you with me/Until the final flicker of life's ember." Yes, the right person can completely change our perspective on the world, on life. Brad delivers the song in English and Portuguese. That's followed by "You Do Something To Me," the second Cole Porter song of the album. This one begins on bass, and, like "It's All Right With Me," it moves at a fast pace. And yet his delivery has a dreamy quality on certain lines, creating an interesting tone and spirit. And he gets playful the second time he delivers the voodoo line, which works so well. This track also features a wonderful lead on saxophone. Late Nights then concludes with "Skylark," which also begins on bass. When Brad comes in, his vocals are at first supported by just bass. This track contains one of the disc's best vocal performances. "And in your lonely flight/Haven't you heard the music in the night/Wonderful music/Faint as a will-o'-the-wisp, crazy as a loon/And sad as a gypsy serenading the moon." This is an excellent rendition, feeling both fresh and timeless. Halfway through the track we get a beautiful lead on saxophone.

CD Track List

1. Time After Time
2. I Wish I Knew
3. It's All Right With Me
4. It Never Entered My Mind
5. Quiet Nights (Corcovado)
6. You Do Something To Me
7. Skylark

Late Nights was released on November 20, 2025.